Amy Davidson

Independent Writer

Opinion Articles & Editorials Written By Amy Davidson

On Monday, Sally Yates, the acting Attorney General, provided an example of what it means to work honorably for Donald Trump. It comes down to conducting yourself in a way that, in many cases, will result—that you know will result—in not working for him for very long. Trump fired Yates after she refused to deploy Justice Department lawyers in defense of his executive order, issued on Friday, which bans people from seven Muslim-majority countries, and refugees from anywhere in the world, from entering the United States.

There was a brief moment, this weekend, when Governor John Kasich exhibited what passes today for reason in the Republican Party. He wasn’t entirely sensible: asked about Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, he told Chuck Todd, on “Meet the Press,” “I never thought the President should have sent it up”—adopting the position that, somehow, Obama, twice elected and with a year left in his term, had shown unwarranted audacity by doing his job. On “Face the Nation,” Kasich told John Dickerson the s...

There was one, and maybe only one, moment in the Republican debate in Des Moines, on Thursday night, when the candidates sounded as though they were speaking truly and honestly—from the heart, unrehearsed, and uninhibited. Unfortunately for anyone hoping for an elevated exchange in the absence of Donald Trump—who was, after a fight with Fox News, holding his own event—it came when Senator Marco Rubio and Senator Rand Paul lit into Senator Ted Cruz, questioning his character. Their apparently visceral dislike of their collea...

On consecutive days last week, two Republican senators, both of whom are hoping to be the next President, released videos in which they destroyed stuff. First, Rand Paul went at a pile of paper, which he said was the United States tax code, with fire, a wood chipper, and a chain saw. (He wore safety goggles—he may be against regulations, but he’s also an ophthalmologist.) The next day saw Lindsey Graham attacking his Samsung flip phone with a cleaver, a blender, and a golf club. He also dropped a concrete block on it, threw...